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Topic: Bye Bye Bees (Read 1584 times)

4 weeks ago I started to notice that one of my 4 year old hives was looking weak. So I went into it and I notice that the hive had no queen, because I there were no eggs or caped cells. So I ordered a new queen. 2 weeks ago I received my new queen so I puther in. There where plenty of bees in this hive when I went into it 4 weeks ago and then when I put the new queen in. So I go to see what the queen has been doing yesterday and there was not one bee in that hive not only was there not one bee in the hive but not an ounce of honey or pollen and the wax moths had started. Has anybody everseen anything like this? Does this sound like CCD. I have 5 other hives that are 4to 5 years old should I be scared that this might happen to them?

Starvation can trigger absconding, and since there wasn't any honey or pollen, I support that opinion as well.

One other far-flung thought...is it possible that they died earlier and all of the bees you saw earlier in there were robbers? They wouldn't care about the queen and would not come back once the honey was gone?

Thanks for all the good info. When I took this hive back to my house to open it upto see what might have happened, I did see a lot of SHB in it. If this is the case thatthe SHB pushed them out and what I was seeing 2 and 4 weeks ago was the other bees robbing would I see a lot of dead bees on the ground around the entrance? What I still don’t understand is how a 4 year old strong hive could let these SHB get to be so bad that it would run them off.

It's not usually the SHB that drives the bees off but rather something else weakened the hive....the queen that you added didn't make it and then the hive was unable to grow. They used up all of their stores, etc. As they weakened, it made more room for SHB - a strong hive seems to keep SHB under control, so the problems that you saw at the end - SHB and wax moths are the consequence of a weak hive - not the other way around.

Linda T in Atlanta

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http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

It's not usually the SHB that drives the bees off but rather something else weakened the hive....the queen that you added didn't make it and then the hive was unable to grow. They used up all of their stores, etc. As they weakened, it made more room for SHB - a strong hive seems to keep SHB under control, so the problems that you saw at the end - SHB and wax moths are the consequence of a weak hive - not the other way around.

Linda T in Atlanta

I agree, weak hives are the window for shb to take off.

On topic off topic, I love watching bees try to sting shbs, its rather comical actually, they look like they get frustrated cause they really can't sting through the shb armour.

4 weeks ago I started to notice that one of my 4 year old hives was looking weak. So I went into it and I notice that the hive had no queen, because I there were no eggs or caped cells. So I ordered a new queen. 2 weeks ago I received my new queen so I puther in. There where plenty of bees in this hive when I went into it 4 weeks ago and then when I put the new queen in.

Remember, it takes about 21 days from eggs to emerging worker bees. So, 4 weeks ago, when you saw no capped brood; you had already been queenless for AT LEAST 3 weeks. It was 2 more weeks until you got a queen, and it would normally take another week before she's laying really good. That's roughly 6 weeks of no new bees during the summer when a worker's lifespan is only about 6 weeks. So you had a seriously weakened colony, unable to defend against SHB and wax moth. Sorry to say, but it sounds like the new queen was too late.